sometimes finds himself under the necessity of forming his opinions, and framing his accounts, not by faith in the reports of the day, but by an estimate of what is most probable, and attending to consequences. The bishop of Valladolid, with the principal clergy of the city, came to meet general La Salle, supplicating forgiveness to the city and its inhabitants, which was readily granted. The city and province of Valladolid were disarmed. Ten members of the council of Placentia, Segovia, and Valladolid, were deputed to go to his Catholic majesty (Joseph Buonaparte) at Bayonne, there to supplicate his forgivenness, in the act of tendering their own fealty, and that of their fellow-citizens. General Merle proceeded to the mountains of St. Andero *: on the morning of the 21st of June, he fell upon the insurgent patriots, headed by the bishop, drove them from all their positions, and took from them two eighteen pounders, which, loaded with grape shot, they had fired only twice. In other parts of the mountainous district, parties of the insurgents were driven from post to post into St. Andero, by general Ducos. On the 23d, the generals Merle and Ducos entered St. Andero, on different sides of the town. The peasants every where returned to their homes. The city of St. Andero having made its submission, like Segovia, Palentia, and Valladolid, was oblig ed to swear fealty to the usurper. Thus quietness was restored for the present to Navarre, Guipuscoa, and Biscay. A great number of patriots had been assembling, for some time, at Benevento, under the standard of general Cuesta. In this number were comprehended all the Spanish prisoners who had been sent back to Spain by the British government. With this force, general Cuesta marched on to Valladolid, with the design of cutting off the communication between the French in the northern provinces of Spain, and those in Madrid. It was his plan, having reduced Valladolid, to advance to Burgos. The force under Cuesta, is stated by the French gazette to have amounted to not less than 35,000. Marshal Bessieres, aware of the design of the Spaniards, and sensible of the importance of maintaining the post at Valladolid, advanced to meet them with a force, amounting in all to 12,000, of which 2000 were cavalry, with a proportionate train of artillery. On the 14th of July, at break of day, he came in sight of the enemy, who occupied a large extent of ground on the heights of Medina del Rio Seco. Bessieres attacked them on the right. And at the same time general Monton, at the head of another division, made himself master of the town of Medina del Rio Seco, with fixed bayonets. All the positions of the Spaniards were carried; they fled in great confusion; and they lost all A canton or small province on the coast of Biscay, between Asturia de Santillana, Old Castille, and Biscay. St. Andero is one of the first commercial ports of Spain, being in the number of those called Abilitados, that is, authorized to garry on every kind of trade, with America. all their artillery, consisting of 40 pieces of cannon. Six thousand were made prisoners, according to the French accounts, and more than 12,000 left on the field of battle. All their baggage and military stores fell into the hands of the French. The Spaniards fled first to Benevento, from whence, after a short halt, they continued their retreat to Labenara, Leon, and Astorga. They were pursued by marshal Bessieres, who at Benevento, July 19th, found an immense quantity of arms and ammunition. Here, he received a letter of submission from the inhabitants of Zamora, and on the following day, the 20th, he entered that town, from whence he proceeded to Majorga. At Majorga he received a deputation from Leon; which city he entered on the 26th. The bishop came two miles to meet him, and the council appearing before the gates of the city, presented the keys, in token of submission. According to certain accounts in the Spanish newspapers of the day, the Spanish army did not exceed fourteen or fifteen thousand infantry, and eight hundred cavalry. The Spaniards, it was stated, were in the first onset so fortunate as to beat back the French, and take and spike four pieces of cannon. But the field of battle being in a vast plain, the patriots, who were carried by their impetuosity cut of their ranks, without a sufficient number of horsemen to make head against the French cavalry, and unaccustomed to any such prompt evolutions as might have supplied that deficiency, were obliged to leave the field of battle to the French, with thirteen of their cannon: though it was said they retreated in good order, and afterwards rallied. The kind of order observed, is sufficiently illustrated by the ra pidity of their retreat, and the distance to which they retreated. On the other hand that their disasters were not so great as had been given out by the French, and that reinforcements were advancing to join general Cuesta, is rendered extremely probable by the retreat or flight of king Joseph Buonaparte, on the 27th of July, from Madrid. After intelligence was received of the surrender of Dupont at Baylen, and the discovery that so many of the ministers of Joseph had made their escape from Madrid, the French immediately began to fortify the Reteiro. Duhesme had been repulsed from Gerona, Arragossa still held out, armies from Valencia and Adalusia menaced the capital. The army of the western provinces, under general Cuesta, though routed and dispersed by the battle of Medina del Rio Seco, manifested a determination to rally. The French, therefore, in the evening of the twenty-ninth of July, began to evacuate Madrid. King Joseph, with the last companies of the troops, left Madrid on the twentyninth, and took the route of Segovia, from whence he proceeded to Burgos, the rendezvous of the whole of his army at and in the [P3] vicinity We omitted to mention in its proper place, that general Dupont, on his arrival in France, was tried by a court martial, condemned to death, and immediately shot by torch light. vicinity of Madrid. The French carried along with them all the artillery and ammunition, for which they could find means of conveying; spiking the cannon, and destroying the ammunition they were obliged to leave behind them.— They plundered the public treasury, and carried off all the jewels belonging to the crown, and all the plate, and whatever was most valuable in the palaces belonging to Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. or to any of the branches of the royal family. On which it was merrily observed, and became a common saying among the Spaniards, that, "Because Joseph could not put the crown on his head, he had put it in his pocket." The French army was accompanied or followed by such of the Spaniards as had accepted offices under the government of king Joseph, and most of the French established in various situations in Madrid. СНАР. CHAP. XII. Erroneous Opinion of Buonaparte respecting the Spaniards.— Erronemus Conduct in consequence of this.-Attempt to conceal the extent and strength of the Spanish Insurrections from the French, German, and other Nations.-Liberation of the Spanish Troops in the North of Germany.-Military Preparations of Austria.-Alarm of Buonaparte.-Remonstrances and Explanations.-Troops of the Confederation of the Rhine, taken into the Pay of France.--Sent into France to Supply the Place of the French Regiments to be sent to Spain.-Interview between the Emperor of Russia and Buonaparte at Erfurth.-Insurrection in Portugal.-British Expedition to Portugal under the Orders of Sir Arthur Wellesley.—Convention of Cintra. BUONAPARTE, reckoning that a degree much beyond the blind Spain would be a very easy conquest, thought that the speediest way to take possession of the country would be, not to keep his forces together in one strong army, as might have been necessary where any great resistance was to be expected, but to push forward detachments, as we have seen, in every direction. At first he affected to treat the insurrection in Spain with great contempt.-He was at uncommon pains to conceal the real state of affairs in Spain from the French and the Germans too. He gave out, in his newspapers, French and German, that all that was most respectable in the Spanish nation was devoted, and that even zealously, to the new dynasty and order of affairs in Spain, and that it was only the mere rabble of day-labourers, peasants, and low tradesmen, under the direction of the monks, whom he represented as fanatical and ignorant to fanaticism of the monks in France and Italy, among whom were sometimes found men of learning and talents. The monks of Spain he (that is, his literary emissaries, in conformity to his will and obedience to his directions) described as clownish and uncouth in their personal appearance, and bearing an exact likeness to so many butchers. All this was only an acknowledgment of what he apprehended from the zeal and exertions of that religious body. While he laboured to persuade the French, and particularly, it may be presumed, the Spaniards at a distance from home, that the most respectable part of the Spanish nation was sincerely attached to king Joseph, he used means also for impressing the inhabitants of Spain with a belief that their countrymen that had been drawn into the French service, were also devoted to him. It was published [P4] in in the Paris newspapers, August 12, as an article from Hamburgh, that the Spanish troops, under the marquis of Romana, had come forward of their own accord, and with great zeal, to swear allegiance, and had proffered a detachment from their corps of picked men, to form a guard of honour for king Joseph. But on the contrary, this gallant corps was no sooner informed of the forced abdication and captivity of the royal family, and of what was passing in Spain, than they burned with ardour to join the ranks of their countrymen. Though surrounded by hostile battalions, they planted their colours in the centre of a circle which they formed, and swore on their knees, to be faithful to their country. By a well combined plan, concerted between Keats, the British admiral in the Baltic, and Romana, ten thousand of the Spanish troops stationed in Funen, Langland, Zealand, and Jutland, emancipated themselves from the French yoke, and, under the protection of the British fleet, were conveyed with their stores, arms, and artillery, to Spain, where they landed at Corunna on the 30th of September. The marquis of Romana himself returned home by the way of London, where he arrived on the 16th of September, for the purpose of having a conference with the British ministry, and British military officers. But one Spanish regiment, near two thousand strong, in Jutland, was too distant, and too critically situated, to effect its escape. And two in Zealand, after firing on the French general Frision, who commanded them, and killing one of his aid-de-camps by his side, were disarmed. While Frision was in the act of haranguing these troops, for the purpose of engaging them to declare for king Joseph, one of the soldiers, buruing with indignation, and regardless of consequences, stepped forth from the ranks and fired a pistol at him, which missing the general, killed the aidde-camp. When The Marquis de la Romana was kept in profound ignorance of the glorious events that had taken place in his country, and various attempts had been made on the part of the British government, to communicate the tidings to him, and to devise means for his escape with the troops under his command, without effect.At length a Swedish clergyman was found in whose honour, good sense, and enterprising disposition, the firmest confidence could be placed. This gentleman, disguised as a low and travelling tradesman, went by the way of Heligoland, and having overcome many obstacles with the utmost patience, prudence, and fortitude, at length arrived at the place where the marquis and bis troops were stationed. Having ascertained the person of the marquis, he was obliged to watch incessantly for an opportunity of addressing him, without exciting the suspicion of the numerous spies by whom he was surrounded. The venerable agent at last was obliged, as if by accident, to jostle the marquis in the street, in order to attract his attention. Having done so, he apologized, as if ignorant of the person whom he addressed, and concluded with offering to sell him some excellent coffee. The marquis treated this offer with contempt, and signified that he supposed he was speaking to a smuggler. The minister of the gospel, however, persevered in recommending his coffee, and in the course of the conversation, found means to intimate that he was not a smuggler but a gentleman." We'll soon see that," said the marquis, and then asked him if he could speak latin. The minister an swered |